Calls for inquiry as figures show 27% of London's prisoners are Muslim

More than a quarter of London’s prison population are Muslims, prompting urgent calls for an inquiry into what is happening in the justice system.

Official figures have revealed that record levels of Muslim people are serving jail sentences and that the numbers are still growing. Across England and Wales the proportion has risen from eight per cent a decade ago to 14 per cent now.

In London, the figure is an “astonishing” 27 per cent, which is more than double the 12 per cent of the capital’s population who are Muslim. In two prisons, Feltham and Isis, a third of the inmates were Muslim.

The data was obtained by Sadiq Khan, the lawyer and shadow justice secretary who is himself a Muslim. He told the Evening Standard that an inquiry was vital to explain why the increase is happening.

“What’s really worrying is the rise, year after year, in the number of Muslims behind bars,” he said, adding: “We need to know why that’s the case if we’re to stop this rising further, reduce crime and prevent people needlessly becoming victims.”

Half of the top 10 prisons with the highest Muslim populations are in London, including Belmarsh, where the percentage has risen since 2010 from 19 to 29 per cent, Brixton (24 per cent), Pentonville (28 per cent), Thameside (25 per cent) and Wormwood Scrubs (27 per cent).

Mr Khan accused the Government of sitting on its hands after a 2010 call by the Chief Inspector of Prisons for a National Strategy to deal with the growing numbers of Muslims behind bars.

He said: “Four years on and ministers have ignored this call. The Government is utterly clueless about what to do about this growing problem. This is a waste of human talent and a huge drain on the hard-pressed taxpayer.”

Higher offending rates is only one of many possible reasons why the prison population is higher for some groups of the population. Other explanations could be that Muslims are more frequently caught and prosecuted, or sentenced to longer prison terms compared with other offenders.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We have already implemented many of the recommendations from the 2010 report.”

Replies to This Discussion

Higher offending rates is only one of many possible reasons why the prison population is higher for some groups of the population. Other explanations could be that Muslims are more frequently caught and prosecuted, or sentenced to longer prison terms compared with other offenders.

Yes, that's right! The poor Muslims are being locked up by Islamophobic police! We should just let them groom, rape and pimp another 10,000 young non-Muslim girls (official estimate from CROP). After all, they are superior to us, the 'worst of creatures'. We should learn our place and stop complaining.

10,000 victims of grooming gangs, but no prosecutions against muslims for 25 years

no prosecutions against the 300,000 (mostly) muslims who committed FGM

devout muslim who raped a schoolgirl not given a prison sentence

imam who raped a schoolgirl not given a prison sentence

All indications are that the police/legal profession have treated muslims with leniency

Alan Lake said:

Higher offending rates is only one of many possible reasons why the prison population is higher for some groups of the population. Other explanations could be that Muslims are more frequently caught and prosecuted, or sentenced to longer prison terms compared with other offenders.

Yes, that's right! The poor Muslims are being locked up by Islamophobic police! We should just let them groom, rape and pimp another 10,000 young non-Muslim girls (official estimate). After all, they are superior to us, the 'worst of creatures'. We should learn our place and stop complaining.

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Most Western societies are based on Secular Democracy, which itself is based on the concept that the open marketplace of ideas leads to the optimum government. Whilst that model has been very successful, it has defects. The 4 Freedoms address 4 of the principal vulnerabilities, and gives corrections to them.

At the moment, one of the main actors exploiting these defects, is Islam, so this site pays particular attention to that threat.

Islam, operating at the micro and macro levels, is unstoppable by individuals, hence: "It takes a nation to protect the nation". There is not enough time to fight all its attacks, nor to read them nor even to record them. So the members of 4F try to curate a representative subset of these events.

We hope that free nations will wake up to stop the threat, and force the separation of (Islamic) Church and State. This will also allow moderate Muslims to escape from their totalitarian political system.

The 4 Freedoms

These 4 freedoms are designed to close 4 vulnerabilities in Secular Democracy, by making them SP or Self-Protecting (see Hobbes's first law of nature). But Democracy also requires - in addition to the standard divisions of Executive, Legislature & Judiciary - a fourth body, Protector of the Open Society (POS), to monitor all its vulnerabilities (see also Popper). 1. SP Freedom of SpeechAny speech is allowed - except that advocating the end of these freedoms2. SP Freedom of ElectionAny party is allowed - except one advocating the end of these freedoms3. SP Freedom from Voter ImportationImmigration is allowed -except where that changes the political demography (this is electoral fraud)4. SP Freedom from Debt
The Central Bank is allowed to create debt - except where that debt burden can pass across a generation (25 years).

An additional Freedom from Religion is deducible if the law is applied equally to everyone:

Religious and cultural activities are exempt from legal oversight except where they intrude into the public sphere (Res Publica)"